Former Derby teacher sentenced to 3 years in prison for child sex crime

Family and friends of former Derby middle school teacher Steven Young packed the courtroom Friday, hoping the judge would grant probation for a child sex crime and they could take him home.

They left disappointed, some of them in tears, after Sedgwick County District Court Judge Stephen Ternes sentenced Young to three years in prison, minus time served.

“This is not a probation case,” Ternes told Young, 41, as he pronounced sentence. “I believe the defendant has sought out children as victims of his crime.”

Young pleaded guilty to one count of electronic solicitation of a child after authorities said he was caught having explicit contact with an undercover crime analyst with a Wisconsin sheriff’s office.

Young was working as an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Derby North Middle School, authorities said, when he used an online chat room geared toward teens to find and message whom he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

In a statement he gave prior to sentencing, Young admitted “sins” of a sexual nature, including masturbating while talking on Skype with what he thought was the 14-year-old. In the 11 months he has been in jail awaiting adjudication of his case, he said he has begun receiving treatment.

“I am needed at home” by his wife and children, Young said to Ternes.

He asked the judge that he be allowed to start work on becoming the person “I was called to really be.”

Ternes acknowledged the outpouring of support evident in the courtroom, but asked Young why he hadn’t sought out help before committing the crime. He also noted that in a pre-sentence evaluation and in his statement to the court, Young talked about the impact of the crime on himself — but not on his potential victims.

Young was stoic upon receiving his sentence, but tears filled the eyes of several others watching from the gallery.

Jama Mitchell, Young’s defense attorney, acknowledged after the sentencing that she was disappointed by the judge’s ruling.

“Of all the clients I’ve had, he would have been an excellent candidate” for probation, Mitchell said.

Young had no prior criminal history — “not even a parking ticket,” she added — and had the support system in place to continue his treatment outside of prison.

But Mitchell pointed out that Ternes could have given Young an even longer sentence. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 61 months — more than five years.

“The judge was fair,” she said.

Ternes ordered that time already served be counted in Young’s sentence, and he told the former teacher he could reduce the sentence by another 15 percent through good behavior.

This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Former Derby teacher sentenced to 3 years in prison for child sex crime."